Go and swim the sea
by Pandora's tears
Summary: Why does Eurilie finally agree to let her little Ti Moune go find her love? perhaps, because she too once defied the gods for the one she loved. chapters are really short...
1. the story of Eurilie

months before she was born, she had been promised to Agwe; a living offering so the god would not flood the rivers of her village.  
she was told, over and over again, that on her 16th year, she would walk into the sea.  
But she would not drowned. Agwe would transform her so that she would be able to live beside him, as his consort.  
Agwe, taking a liking to the child from the moment she was born, stayed close by, watching as he grew. She was the only one on the island who had ever seen the water god.

The story of Eurilie.....

"Agwe.... are you there?" Eurilie sat on the bank of the peaceful river, splashing her toes int he moonlit liquid.  
"Oh, agwe...." she sang. she started humming randomly, but soon it turned into the song that her people often sang to the gods. Before long, she felt strong arms wrap around her shoulders.  
"Happy birthday, my Eurie."  
She smiled, knowing the voice and the arms.  
"Fifteen today. does it please you to know I will be yours in a year?"  
He chuckled and kissed the top of her head, "My only pleasure comes from your happiness, my child."  
She scoffed, turning in his arms. He looked down at her childish pout. "Mamma says I'm to young yet to know what will make me happy."  
He continued to smile, petting her long dark hair. "Things change, dear one."  
She laid her head on his chest. It never ceased to amaze her that a god would have a beating heart. Steadily it beat under her ear, a comforting sound, like the rhythm of the rain on the water.  
"You father would be proud if he could see the fine young woman you are becoming,  
Eurie."  
She sighed, and gripped him tighter. "I miss him so much," she admitted slowly. "and then.... sometimes...."  
he felt her tense in his arms.  
"What? tell me your thoughts child. What have you to fear from me?" he laughed.  
She grinned, almost shyly. It's just... sometimes, I think of you.... as a father. It that wrong? I am to be your wife one day and I do not love you as a wife should. Is there something wrong with m-"  
He placed a finger over her lips, silencing her. "There is nothing wrong with you, my child. I feel the same."  
Her face lit up, in suprise and perhaps a hint of hope. "At least there is love between us. That is enough for now. Much can happen in a year."


	2. a jucy mango

Months passed in much the same way they had for fifteen years; meeting in the moonlight, laughing, and Eurilie trying to fall in love with the god. She loved him, it was true, but no matter how she looked at him, he could only be a freind, a mentor, a father. Three months before the appointed day, Eurilie sat in a mango tree, wishing to convay her fears to her friend, Larisa. "Why don't you just tell me and get it over with?" Larisa rolled her eyes at her friends hesitation. She reached high into the branches and pulled down the sweet fruit, handing it back to Eurilie. Instead of putting it in the harvesting bag,she fiddled with it. "Because, my father was the elder of the tribe, and he swore my family to secrecy.  
believe me, if I could, I would tell you everything!"  
Larisa swung down and sat beside her.  
"What, are you betrothed or something?"  
Eurilie didn't look up from her mango.  
""Eurilie!! You are?!? and you didn't tell me!!"  
"It's not what you think, Larisa. It's.... More complicated."  
She turned from her friend with a frustrated growl and clibed high into the tree.  
Half the tribe was in the tree's today, mostly the women while the men worked in the rice fields. she climbed high as she could to look out over the lands and out to the sea.  
Sighing, she leaned against a limb and wondered if she would miss her life on land.  
Her thoughts were interrupted when the branch under her cracked.  
A scream caught in her throat as she began to fall through the leaves.  
But a strong arm caught hers.  
She looked up to the young man with dark eyes who held her and her heart flip flopped.


	3. my Julian

Agwe waited at the river by Eurilie's house for one of their meetings.  
For the first time in fifteen years, she was late.  
Well past midnight, he finally saw her form stumbling towards the river.  
"Eurie, my child?" he called out in concern. He heard her sniffle in reply.  
"Eurilie!?" He ran to her, covering her with his strong arms.  
"I'm... I'm so sorry, was all he could coax out of her for a long time.  
"Child, please. Do not be sorry. Please, just tell me what has happened!"  
she shook her head, "I fear the gods."  
He sighed, petting her hair, "you have nothing to fear; you are under my protection."  
She sniffed, "But for how much longer?"  
He pulled her away to look in her eyes.  
"Agwe... I've fallen in love."  
"in.... in love?"  
She sobbed, pulling him tight again.  
"Oh, Agwe! I didn't mean to! He just arrived in our village. I was out in the trees and he saved my life. He's so kind and...." He could hardly understand her through her tears.  
"Please, don't fear: don't cry. Tell me about him. tell me about your boy."  
She sniffed as he led her to sit on the bank.  
"Julian. My Julian."

Agwe held her and listened as she told him everything. How he had saved her from falling from the tree, they spent the rest of the day together.  
Larisa had thought that he might even be the one she was betrothed to.  
He had even kissed her hand before leaving her side.  
"I did not think this was even possible. Has Erzulie chosen this as a task for me?"  
Agwe was silent. Erzulie might be the answer to this all.  
Go for now. Sleep, and refresh yourself. I will handel this. I will make everything right."  
She looked at him through her tears, unsure what he would do, unsure of what she wanted. But she nodded, and went to her home.


	4. uncontrolable

"Erzulie!!" Agwe shouted. The sun was bright ont he sand and the breeze smelled of sweet flowers. This was a tiny island unknown to the world, a land of peace where the gods could meet and relax.  
Slowly before him appeared a mist of pink light.  
"Agwe, do not yell at me. I know your reasons for calling me... but I'm not to blame." He huffed, "Then why do you hide from me?" He turned from her and sank to sit in the sand, watching the tide fall in and out.  
Slowly, her form began to change into a solid woman. She carefully moved closer to him, still wary. "Human love is a strange thing. the love between your girl and the boy was already there. When he let the love in his heart grow, she chose to let it touch her heart. I help them feel the love that's already there... I don't control it like you do rain or Asaka can make the flowers grow."  
He nodded, still not meeting her eyes.  
"But why? why put her through this pain. What am I to do, tear her from the man she now loves? I can't hurt her like this!!"  
A voice thundered over them, "That is not for you to decide."  
Both Agwe and Erzulie jumped and turned. the sky grew dark, the moon was high.  
Papa Ge's dark form popped out of the mist on their left and Asaka on their right.  
But more importantly, strait in front of them, stood two figures.  
More beautiful than anything on earth, more frightening than death itself.  
Tall and bright, Sol and Selene.  
The Sun and the Moon, king and queen of the gods.  
"Your Grace," Agwe bowed, followed by the three other, lower gods.  
"Agwe, your consort, your promised sacrifice has had thoughts of leaving you.  
This is treason and heresy. There must be a trial. there must be retribution!"


	5. love has many powers

Eurilie tried to shake the sleepiness from her head. Everything was confusing. she wasn't even on her mat. Where was she?  
She looked over the sandy beach, wondering if she had walked out of her house in her sleep.  
There, not far from her, lay another form in the sand.  
"Julian?" she crawled over to him, trying to rouse him. She looked down and felt her heart flip flop just by glancing at his face. A slight beard had begun to form on his chin, and his cheeks held a faint pink glow.  
But as much as she liked looking at his sleeping form, her fear began to mount for he did not stir. "What is wrong?" she asked the air. She did not expect the reply that came.  
"This is your trial, Eurilie." She jumped, turning to face the voice. Though she had never seen him, she knew she was now face to face with the demon of death.  
"wh-what do you mean?" her voice whispered. he backed away and a woman took his place.  
"You were promised to the god Agwe, and now you turn your back on him for this mortal boy.", Asaka explained. Her face, like Papa Ge's, held no emotion. Or maybe, she wondered, a trying to hold back emotions. What were those emotions? were they on her side?  
Another woman spoke, a voice like silver floating through the air.  
"You are charged with disobeying the gods, trying to create chaos for your tribe and heresy. how do you plead to these charges?"  
Eurilie looked around in silent horror.  
Another woman stepped forward, bathed in a pink glow; she turned to the silver couple that glared at Eurilie.  
"Sol, Please I beg-" she was silenced with a look from the powerful man, if a man he could be called. Eurilie had to look away quickly from his brilliant form.  
Instead she her eyes focused on the one person she could.  
Agwe's eyes, flooded with pain, met hers and would not break the bond.  
Seeing his anguish caused her to fins her voice.  
"Please, I can only beg forgiveness. I did not mean it. My Agwe..."  
"You shall not speak to him." It was the woman again, just as beautiful, just as terribly beautiful as the silvery man. Eurilie began to realize the gravity of her situation. If these two were Sol and Selene, there would be no chance to save herself.  
She took a deep breath and began without looking up, I have done no wrong.  
I did fall in love with this boy."  
She looked down on his sleeping form, just as beautiful to her as the goddess of love herself.  
"But I knew I could not stay. I knew I would leave-"  
"but your heart tells us different," reprimanded Sol.  
Tears streamed down her cheeks. did she even know her own heart?  
"Then there is nothing you will let me say! I am condemned no matter what!!"  
She threw herself over the sleeping boy, waiting for Papa Ge to strike.  
there was silence, and the gods looked around to each other.  
"then all that remains is punishment..." came Selene's voice.  
"And I know what must be done. Papa Ge, the boy Julian must die," Sol announced.  
"NO!!" Eurilie screamed so loud it felt as if her voice were being ripped out.  
Papa Ge's eyes grew wide in anger at being ordered. "The boy is innocent. Why take his life?"  
Sol turned to him, still stone faced.  
"Do you disobey me, Ge?"  
Papa Ge took a deep breath and turned to look at Julian. "No, your grace," he admitted reluctantly.  
"Good. You are a mere Demon. You can be replaced. remember that."  
Eurilie listened, heartbroken for even Papa Ge.  
Then came a sound, like a cymbal crashing in the silence. Agwe was laughing. Eurilie looked up, rising till she was sitting.  
All the gods turned to him and waited for an explanation.  
"Your grace, dear Sol, forgive me. But why waste time with these mortals.  
Kill him if you feel you must. But the girls tribe gave her to me as an offering so that I would not flood their rivers. Would it not be a fitting punishment if I did just that?"  
His eyes met Eurilies. Weather the other gods knew it or not, she knew what he was doing for her. He was offering them another solution. He was saving her Julian.  
Sol nodded, "There is much truth in what you say, Agwe. But the girl must suffer some form of punishment."  
He walk toward her, lifting his hand above her waist.  
She felt a tugging, then burning inside her. She tried not to cry out.  
"You are released from your betrothal. You may have this mortal boy. You may even mary him. But you will never bear his children."  
She he took in a sharp breath. Never to have children?  
But as she looked down to Julian's face, she realized she could bear it, knowing he was alive.  
She looked back up to Agwe. Even if it took her a lifetime, she could never find words to thank him for what he had given her. "In addition, you will never again see Agwe in his god form again."  
her face changed, contorting into agony. "No! please I-"  
Agwe was in front of her again.  
the pain was gone from his eyes. He in fact, looked... free.  
"I know. I shall miss our nights by the river together, my child. but this is best.  
I have always said my pleasure comes from your happiness."  
He took a thin string from around his neck. on the end of it was a simple, small shell. "I will still be there, as I always have. You just wont see me like this. But I'm always here."  
He slipped the necklace over her head. Her eyes never left his, even as he faded.

"Eurilie?" she was pulled from her thoughts. She was back in her own world, on the beach at night. Julian stired beside her, sitting up and rubbing his head. "I had a strange dream... but what are we doing outside?"  
She threw her arms around him, letting her tears fall. Not understanding, Julian simply held her and let her cry.


	6. fragments all stories tie together

years passed. and ever year, floods raged over the village. In the pouring rain, a voice cried out.  
"MAMMA!!!"  
Agwe heard it. it sounded so much like a voice from his past.  
The child he had watched grown into a beautiful young girl, and now an old woman.  
The 'mother' of the tribe, with no children of her own. Without thinking, he picked the little girl out of the flood.  
"ASAKA! help me!!" he shouted. Asaka took the child and placed her in a tree.  
"now what?" she asked, looking at the terrified child clinging to the branches.  
Agwe grinned. "I have an idea."

"mamma, tell me the story again!" cried little Desiree.  
"Oh, which one Ti moune?" Eurilie asked as she hung the clothes out. "The one about you and Tonton! the one where you saved him from the gods!"  
Eurilie laughed, "Ti Moune! I didn't save him! Agwe blessed me and spared him."  
"But I want to hear the story Mamma!"  
"Alright, alright"

Eurilie wondered now, if she hadn't told the girl that story, if she hadn't filled her head with such nonsense about defying the gods,  
they might all live through this. the storm raged outside the hut; Papa Ge wanted the boy who lay on Ti mounes mat.  
perhaps he was going to take away her Julian, .  
She looked over her daughters shoulder, looked down at the boy, and her mind took her back all the years. she could almost see young Julian laying there, and not a grand homme.  
How could she she tell her daughter she was wrong?  
how could this be happening again?

"I know he's there.... that's all I need to know."  
Eurilie refused to let the tears come this time. She would never see her Ti Moune again. if she letter her go now, She would die.  
But it had to be. She could not deny her daughter the chance to find him, to find the love she so desperately needed. She slipped off the shell from around her neck and slipped it around Ti mounes.  
"Go and swim the sea... You know where we'll be, Ti moune."  
They stared at each other for a moment, then Ti Moune threw herself into Eurilie's arms.  
Her resolve to not cry broke as she held her daughter tightly for what she knew was the last time.


End file.
